Do most top universities prefer students talking 4 years single foreign language? My daughter wants to apply to top universities for engineering next year, she took honor Spanish for 3 years, next year instead of 4 th year AP Spanish. She wants to take art and cooking class instead, because never took any fun elective in high school before. She still will be taking AP English, AP Stat, AP Bio and AP psychology and multivariable calculus. If she does not take the AP Spanish, does it make her application less competitive? How many college recommend students taking 4 years single foreign language?
Do most? No. Do many? Yes. If she is applying to a college that suggests 4 years of a single foreign language (of which Penn is not one), then yes, her application would be less-than-competitive. More info can be found here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1802227-faq-foreign-language-p1.html
Relatively few. I can’t vouch that the info on the below is 100% accurate since it’s 4 years old, but it gives you a place to start; your daughter can certainly research the requirements for her target schools:
https://www.asdk12.org/cms/lib/AK02207157/Centricity/Domain/1252/University%20Reqs%202014.pdf
There are community art and cooking classes if she’s interested. She can use those as EC’s because they would be out of school.
If the schools say 4 years “suggested or recommended” then assume 4 years.
The other students will have 4 years of a FL, and your student won’t.
It depends on the college, but in general, the universities with separate admissions for engineering tend to be more lenient regarding high school foreign language for engineers. You should spend some time looking at the different schools that she likes to make sure that less than 4 years is ok. My D only took up to level 3, so she only targeted schools that didn’t require or recommend 4 years, and there were certainly plenty of top engineering programs that fit.
- Did she get to Spanish 4? Like is there Spanish 1 she took in middleschool and now she is finishing Spanish 4 with AP spanish left for senior year? If so, then I would say she is fine…esp if she is going for Engineering
Also she could drop AP Stat and take AP Spanish.
I personally think that taking fun classes is a good thing in HS…it exposes you to different things/skills.
We don’t know enough about her, what she has done, in and out of school, to comment on dropping language for a cooking class. If you hadn’t asked about a most competitive college, the answer might be more flexible.
The word I received from an ex-Swarthmore Admission Officer was to have at least level 4 in a foreign language for top schools as it just checks off a box to help put you at the highest academic rating.
AP Stat is not terribly useful particualrly for an engineering applicant who is also taking Multivariate. Why is she taking it?
If an engineering student needs to take statistics in college for the major, it will likely be a calculus-based statistics course that AP statistics will not be accepted in place of.
Could she replace AP stats with cooking and art? (AP stats looks like padding for a student taking MV).
Has she reached level4 (ie., Took foreign language in middle School?)
yes. She has reached level 4 in Spanish since she started Spanish in middle school.
In that case, she’s fine - they want level 4, which can be reached with 1 year middle school +3 years in high school.
That key piece of info would have been helpful in the original post. 
Agreed.
If she taking a intermediate Spanish 1 or 2 at community college during the summer, will it help?
If she wants to continue in Spanish with college courses, she should ask the college’s Spanish department what the proper placement should be based on her knowledge from high school Spanish.
Thank you!